Have any of you season nurses burned out? What did you do to get through it? I learned in nursing school that nurses have a high rate of burn out. I have been burned out before and actually took some time off from nursing. This really helped. I still sometimes get frustrated with management, or whoever constantly adding more and more responsibilities to nurses. I am all for change if something isn't working, but have you ever noticed that the "committee people", change  a form just when you are getting comfortable with the one they put out the last time. Makes me crazy....

I would like to hear others experiences with burn out, what you think caused it and how you dealt with it...

I've been a nurse for a year now and i am currently in that situation. I have worked full time +. I am fully dedicated to what I do. I do not have children which means i have alot more free time than most of my colleuges making it easier for me to pick up and cover for other nurses. I work for a LTC facility that is owned by a multimillion dollar company. I truly believe that being part of a corporation is most of the problem. The care that we are giving is no longer about the patients, it's about how much money the company makes. I believe that we get burned out because we care. We love what we do. We leave our jobs because of the moral conflict we are faced with when it comes to give excellent nursing care yet hearing constantly that we dont have the supplies we need because of a budget. We get changes in forms constantly because the head of the company has to change something in order to cover their butts because they did something wrong in the first place. I had to take my 2 weeks of paid vacation starting this past weekend because of burn out. I've struggled many times with leaving my job but can't because I love my patients and believe I need to make the difference. To all of the other nurses out there that share my frustration.... keep your head up. we will make a difference.